Long Time No See
sparechange
January 18, 2008 at 04:15 AM posted in General DiscussionIs it 好久不见 (hǎo jiǔ bú jiàn) or 很久没见 (hěn jiǔ méi jiàn)? I had only heard the former, but I just discovered the latter in my "Reading & Writing Chinese" book.
My 中国朋友 (Chinese friends?) will be returning to the US at the end of January after a month-long visit home. I was hoping to drop this phrase when they got back, but I would like to make sure I have the right one first.
谢谢！
furyougaijin
January 19, 2008 at 01:01 PM
Google hits appear to be very sensitive to the point of entry in the search. 好久不见 produced 344,000 hits on my work notebook defaulting to an English-interfaced google.com. The Japanese-interfaced google.com from my personal notebook comes back with 858,000 hits for the same phrase... And with only 15,800 hits for 很久没见... But the traditional 很久没有 gets 1,700,000 hits.
The bottom line is, a google search is often a much better way to find out how a certain phrase is used...
AuntySue
January 19, 2008 at 04:36 AM
Did I do this right?
Google results for
很久没有看到你 - 2,460,000
or 我很久没有看到你（了）！
relrel
January 19, 2008 at 02:22 AM
In my textbook, 好久不見了 is used by a 服務員 to greet a 常客 in a restaurant. I think the 了emphasizes a change in state. I have trouble with 了 too, but this phrase helped me get more comfortable with it because the 'change of state' is so clear cut. (It's been a long time that I haven't seen you, but now I see you!)
furyougaijin
January 18, 2008 at 05:40 PM
好久不见 - 344,000 hits in Google
很久没见 - 355,000 hits in Google
goulnik
January 18, 2008 at 04:30 PM…了 I'd say! 好久不见了，很久不见了
bazza
January 18, 2008 at 03:47 PM
That reminds me of a audiobook I have, where you've just been hired as a spy and you have to learn Chinese quickly in order to complete your mission, 妈妈爸爸好久不见 was a secret phrase you had to remember.
AuntySue
January 18, 2008 at 08:51 AM
Could it be that the one that doesn't roll of the tongue like a well formed package, sounds more heartfelt and sincere?
frank
January 18, 2008 at 04:46 AM
Sure does! I actually heard it on an episode of "How I Met Your Mother" once. I nearly fell out of my chair.
sparechange
January 18, 2008 at 04:34 AM
Thanks, Frank. The first one definitely rolls off the tongue a bit easier.
frank
January 18, 2008 at 04:20 AM
I don't know about the second one, but 好久不见 (hǎo jiǔ bú jiàn) is one I use all the time. It's also the one Aggie throws at me whenever we catch each other online. That's where I put my money.
sparechange
January 19, 2008 at 04:23 PMI restricted my results to pages written in 汉字, and got roughly 1.4M for 好久不见 and 1.7M for 很久没见.
It's close enough for me... I like 好久不见, and it seems it's used often enough that I'm not going to get any funny looks if I use it.